Review on 📷 Canon VIXIA HG20 AVCHD Camcorder - 60GB HDD, 12x Optical Zoom (Discontinued Model) by Major Callaham

PROS: excellent video quality, good size for travel and home, 5+ hours of video on internal hard drive, cheaper than comparable solid state camcorders with internal drive, 10x zoom, easy menu navigation (although I'm used to menus from other Canon camcorders), very easy to use, feels good in the hand, image stabilization is pretty good, HDMI output is handy for watching videos straight away on HDTV , good LCD screen CONS: AVCHD format is good for viewing directly from the camera, but working with most editing programs is cumbersome, the included software is useless (don't waste time on it), internal storage is hard disk based and may break if dropped (compared to SSD or tape) The battery life is only about 1-1.5 hours and takes with d he time off, canon battery upgrade d about 3-4 hours of use is great and costs over $160, regular batteries are cheaper but less durable and unpredictable. Quality, light weight means moving slowly and learning stabilization techniques to prevent viewers from getting sick, no optical viewfinder. I honestly don't know how big the risk is of damaging the internal hard drive if the camera falls. There seem to be few complaints about it on the forum, and I've had no problem dropping it on the carpet a few times. I suspect that if it falls on a rock or sidewalk, something else important in the camera in front of the hard drive will break. This is a very good camcorder and only gets 4 stars due to AVCHD editing issues. I'm a semi-professional videographer and regularly use Premiere Pro on a high-performance computer. Direct playback of AVCHD files in Premiere is very choppy and I prefer to convert AVCHD files to Quicktime for editing as a workaround. I would recommend Pinnacle Studio or Sony Vegas Movie Studio for consumer level editing as they are optimized for AVCHD editing. I use the HG20 as a second camera for events, weddings and lectures. I got it to try out the AVCHD format in my usual multi-camera capture and editing workflow. For example, I prefer to just shoot in HDV due to the performance hit if I try to edit it directly in Premiere Pro CS4. with the Canon HV30 is recorded. I also have a Canon HV20, HV30 and XH-A1, all cameras that film on HDV. If the HG20 was the only camera I owned and I edited it in Pinnacle Studio 12 or Vegas Movie Studio I would be very happy with my purchase. I can confidently recommend it as a family or travel camera as it is lightweight, holds over 5 hours of footage and plugs directly into a TV. I actually bought one for a family member who was about to start a family. The AVCHD format offers superior picture quality and can be downloaded to an external hard drive for later use. If it weren't for the problem with AVCHD editing in Premiere, the possible failure of the internal hard drive and the lack of an optical viewfinder, I would give it 5 stars. When I bought it I thought it was great value for money.